the oh-so-near ocean, about 4 miles as the crow flies
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Today we walked down to the town of Grand-Source (pronounced gron-soos) and to “calico beach”. It is not a beach, but a lush valley filled with massive banyon trees, the ones with roots cascading down over cliffs, bananas, ferns and everything else. The trees blot out the sun high above, a welcome thing, and nets of spanish moss hang down from their branches. Calico creek streams through this wonderful eden, through pools and over waterfalls (it feels more like hawaii than haiti). We followed a tiny path to the edge of a small cliff, at the base of with was turquoise pool into which the creek fell. We scrambled down the side of the cliff (I’d rate it about 5.3/4) to the edge of the pool. Where we are, at the top of a mountain, the sea and the beaches are clearly visible, only a few miles away. You can easily sea the reefs and the sand, but hey are inaccessible. To get there you would have to drive for more than an hour and it would cost a lot of money. After eyeing the ocean for these few weeks to actually get in any sort of body of water is wonderful. You could climb up the rocks and underneath the water fall, then jump out into the water. It is not big, maybe 8 meters across and 7 feet deep. Few people go there anymore, although everyone knows about it, after a boy died there several years ago. He apparently climbed one of the overhanging trees and jumped into the pool, a fall of at least 50 feet into water 6 feet deep. It was magically refreshing and beautiful there and I cant wait to go back.
I am growing very tired of rice and beans (which make up at least 50% of my diet) and spaghetti with ketchup (which I have 6 days a weeks for breakfast). I also would like a shower, bathing here is done with a pail of water and a small tin with little privacy. Also things don't heal here, they only get worse. I cut the back of my knee my first day in Haiti, it is still unhealed. Although much better than it was a week ago, it is about as bad as the original cut, it is swollen and an angry red, and inches horribly. It is no doubt infected, but it is just there, nagging and annoying. 3 meals a day would also be nice. On the plus side we were able to borrow some new mosquito nets, so my nights are many times better, and the number of mosquito bites I have has precipitously dropped. Thats the news from my side of the world, 9 days until my return which I have started to very much look forward to. See you all soon, keep on readin'.
Friday, July 18, 2008
We went to the art center where a womens group was giving a presentation about child domestic servants. There were many powerful stories, many from a single woman. When she was eleven she was not able to wash the dishes one night, and when the mother of the family she was working for was not satisfied by her reasons, she was hit across the face with one of the unwashed pans. Several weeks later this woman was bathing and did not here the woman calling her, when she came back, the husband took a wire and hit her, leaving bruises for a month. I knew of child servants in Haiti, but I had no idea what a problem it was. One thing I have learned over my visit is how strong Haitian women are. Not only do they spend half the day cooking, but perform ask that would wear out anyone from the States in minutes. Just this morning I came across a woman who lives next door carrying a five gallon bucket, completely full of water on her head, and a gallon jug in each hand. I took the jugs as we climbed back towards our houses, a 20 minutes walk that is very step and very hot.
We eat two meals a day, and though these are extremely healthy and delicious, there is little variation and not a whole-lot. We have a light breakfast of spaghetti noodles in ketchup and hot sauce or a scrambled egg, and the a large lunch of; rice and beans with veggie stew, palenta with bean broth, samosa like pockets of onions with beans and rice, or just strait rice and beans. I eat a lot of rice and beans. a lot. I’ve had meat twice, once the veggie stew had a couple slices of beef, and another time I had half of a fried hot dog with my rice and beans. We eat a ton of this heavy, dense white bread. We tear chunks of and each bite takes a few minutes to chew. There is also a lot of fruit, some amazing mangoes and he best avocado of my life. So exotic ones as well, abico, green shells filled with a sour slime, small cherry-mangos, and massive passion fruits ground into a juice. I had some sugar cane too, that was really good.
Last night my sister went into our portion on the house and spotted a tarantula. She ran back and find Mariam and I at the school, and we returned and told our host mother about it. She laughed and promptly took off her shoe, chased it around the rom and squashed it with a satisfying slap. It was a small one by their standards, only four inches. I later went into our room and killed a few 2 inch cockroaches. These I can handle, but the massive spiders are another matter. Earlier today I walked into the room and spotted a moth or butterfly on the wall with a wingspan of at least 8 inches, more like 10. Chris told us a funny story about a friend in Port-au-prince, when she spotted a large tarantula in her shower she went and found her gardener. When seeing it, he took of his shoe as if to slap it, but quickly stomped on it with his bare boot. Upon seeing the expression on his employer’s face, shrugged and said “new shoes”.
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